Take note

For notebooks that will stand out from the crowd, check out the Museum of Modern Art’s gift shop. Their Hidden Pencil Notebooks have trompe l’oeil covers which feature a scatter of colored pencils or tidy yellow pencils lined up in a row. A real pencil nestled in the middle of each cover’s composition! The colored pencils notebook has 144 pages of blank paper, and the yellow notebook has 144 pages of graph paper inside. Both notebooks measure 8.5 inches high by 6 inches wide. Best of all, purchasing this clever, utilitarian notebook from MoMA helps to support the museum’s work, too.

Hidden Pencil Notebooks in colored or yellow, $14.95 each, www.moma.org.

Manhattan Mandarin

Manhattan Mandarin runs the Mandarin after-school programs at over 40 schools nationwide, including St. Bernard's, Chapin, Allen-Stevenson, and Buckley. Whether in schools, students' homes, in the office, online, or on our beloved China trips, our teachers and tutors have helped hundreds of students of all ages master the Mandarin language on their own unique paths to fluency. Our philosophy has always been to make private lessons and classes perfectly tailored for each individual student. We look forward to working with you. - Jamie Keyte, Founder

Congregation Beth Elohim Early Childhood Center

A progressive preschool that nurtures childrens&rsquo; natural curiosity, critical thinking and self-esteem through an emergent curriculum developed by direct observation of childrens&rsquo; play and interactions with the world around them.

The Cathedral School

The Cathedral School is a Nursery School, Pre-K 4, and Kindergarten through 5th grade co- educational day school that offers a nurturing environment while preparing young minds for a rigorous academic education rooted in the principles of Hellenism. The curriculum integrates the most up to date educational methods while adhering to the ancient Greek tradition of paideia which views education as character formation, responsibility and the pursuit of excellence in all forms.